Talyra

When Talyra came aboard the Verdigris, the botany dome was a greenhouse in name only — brown leaves, dead troughs, two spacers who could fly and fight and fix but could not coax green out of a void that hates green. She was the first person who could keep something alive in the glass. The ship changed the day the mana-garden stopped being a joke.

She runs the dome like a heart runs a body: tea rituals, blight response, hydro loops Elias only understands after she explains them twice. She claimed the galley, the medbay habits, and the co-seat when Ivan needs sleep — backup pilot, calm hands, the crew's reason the garden is a battery and not a memorial. Ivan's Null bleed wilts cuttings near his bunk; Elias forgets the one pot she assigned him. Jarvis waters it anyway and logs the violation like a offended accountant. She does not forget much.

The trio has been together about a year when Khesret System pins them — port fees climbing, credits thin, repairs arguing with the hull. Dermidine Industries offered one month in a new theme park for enough pay to clear the dock, fix what breaks, and fill the tanks. Talyra signed on because the job was food, fuel, and a chance to breathe. Same as the others.